The Original Occupation: Native Blood & the Myth of Thanksgiving

This piece is available as podcast. It is part of our larger Kasama offerings on peoples’ history.

The Puritan colonists of Massachusetts embraced a line from Psalms 2:8:

“Ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

by Mike Ely

Intro to that first occupation

It is a deep thing that people still celebrate the survival of the early colonists at Plymouth — by giving thanks to the Christian God who supposedly protected and championed the European invasion.

Let's see the reality of Thanksgiving -- and the founding of the United States in slavery and genocide

The real meaning of all that, then and now, needs to be continually excavated. The myths and lies that surround the past are constantly draped over the horrors and tortures of our present.

We are talking widely among ourselves about “occupying” Wall Street — taking the center of an empire back for the people of the world. We are talking about “Occupy Everything” — sharing our dreams of taking all society away from banks, police, and the heartless authority of money. We hope this moment marks a beginning of the end for them.

And yet, just such a moment cannot be understood without remembering that other occupation — the one that marked the beginning of their beginning.

Arrogant invaders occupied a land using the most naked forms of genocide. They invented new forms of slavery, slave trade and profit making. They arrived with their high-tech arms and bibles. They declared all was theirs by divine right, while they took it all with raw force.

Put another way: The nation-state who today labels millions of indigenous descendants “illegal aliens” arrived in boats with only royal corporation papers and their holy book as documents of legitimacy.

That first occupation was a sweeping nightmare that starts with Columbus. It has continued for 500 years. For the Native peoples of today (and therefore for us too) it remains an ongoing story of domination and removal. They are not a people of the past. This is not a process that has ended…. yet.

Here, in this essay, we offer only a small piece of that story — that particular episode made especially significant for only one reason: First, the blood-soaked victors of New England’s genocides celebrated their conquest with thanksgiving. Then the masters of an expanding empire packaged that celebration in a mythology that survives today.

Every schoolchild in the U.S. has been taught that the Pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony invited the local Indians to a major harvest feast after surviving their first bitter year in New England.

Here is the true story of that Thanksgiving — a story of murder and theft, of the first “corporations” invented on North American soil, of religious fundamentalism and relentless mania for money. It is a story of the birth of capitalism.

This piece is intended to be shared at this holiday time. Pass it on. Serve a little truth with the usual stuffing.

* * * * * * * * *

Armed arrival after European disease had struck a coast

In mid-winter 1620 the English ship Mayflower landed on the North American coast, delivering 102 exiles. The original Native people of this stretch of shoreline had already been killed off. In 1614 a British expedition had landed there. When they left they took 24 Indians as slaves and left smallpox behind. Three years of plague wiped out between 90 and 96 percent of the inhabitants of the coast, destroying most villages completely.

The Europeans landed and built their colony called “the Plymouth Plantation” near the deserted ruins of the Indian village of Pawtuxet. They ate from abandoned cornfields grown wild. Only one Pawtuxet named Squanto had survived–he had spent the last years as a slave to the English and Spanish in Europe. Squanto spoke the colonists’ language and taught them how to plant corn and how to catch fish until the first harvest. Squanto also helped the colonists negotiate a peace treaty with the nearby Wampanoag tribe, led by the chief Massasoit.

These were very lucky breaks for the colonists. The first Virginia settlement had been wiped out before they could establish themselves. Thanks to the good will of the Wampanoag, the settlers not only survived their first year but had an alliance with the Wampanoags that would give them almost two decades of peace.

John Winthrop, a founder of the Massahusetts Bay colony considered this wave of illness and death to be a divine miracle. He wrote to a friend in England, “But for the natives in these parts, God hath so pursued them, as for 300 miles space the greatest part of them are swept away by smallpox which still continues among them. So as God hath thereby cleared our title to this place, those who remain in these parts, being in all not 50, have put themselves under our protection.”

The deadly impact of European diseases and the good will of the Wampanoag allowed the settlers to survive their first year.

In celebration of their good fortune, the colony’s governor, William Bradford, declared a three-day feast of thanksgiving after that first harvest of 1621.

How the Puritans Stole the Land

Original inhabitants — before the European invasion

But the peace that produced the Thanksgiving Feast of 1621 meant that the Puritans would have 15 years to establish a firm foothold on the coast. Until 1629 there were no more than 300 settlers in New England, scattered in small and isolated settlements. But their survival inspired a wave of Puritan invasion that soon established growing Massachusetts towns north of Plymouth: Boston and Salem. For 10 years, boatloads of new settlers came.

And as the number of Europeans increased, they proved not nearly so generous as the Wampanoags.

After the first colonies were establshed — the Pequod war

On arrival, the Puritans and other religious sects discussed “who legally owns all this land.” They had to decide this, not just because of Anglo-Saxon traditions, but because their particular way of farming was based on individual–not communal or tribal–ownership. This debate over land ownership reveals that bourgeois “rule of law” does not mean “protect the rights of the masses of people.”

Some settlers argued that the land belonged to the Indians. These forces were excommunicated and expelled. Massachusetts Governor Winthrop declared the Indians had not “subdued” the land, and therefore all uncultivated lands should, according to English Common Law, be considered “public domain.” This meant they belonged to the king. In short, the colonists decided they did not need to consult the Indians when they seized new lands, they only had to consult the representative of the crown (meaning the local governor).

Training of the Massachusetts militia, 1637. The means of genocide and theft.

The colonists embraced a line from Psalms 2:8.

“Ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.”

Since then, European settler states have similarly declared god their real estate agent: from the Boers seizing South Africa to the Zionists seizing Palestine.

The European immigrants took land and enslaved Indians to help them farm it. By 1637 there were about 2,000 British settlers. They pushed out from the coast and decided to remove the inhabitants.

The Shining City on the Hill

Where did the Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies of Puritan and “separatist” pilgrims come from and what were they really all about?

A self-serving historical lie — The myth of coexistance and love promoted by Thanksgiving

Governor Winthrop, a founder of the Massachusetts colony, said, “We shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us.” The Mayflower Puritans had been driven out of England as subversives. The Puritans saw this religious colony as a model of a social and political order that they believed all of Europe should adopt.

The Puritan movement was part of a sweeping revolt within English society against the ruling feudal order of wealthy lords. Only a few decades after the establishment of Plymouth, the Puritan Revolution came to power in England. They killed the king, won a civil war, set up a short-lived republic, and brutally conquered the neighboring people of Ireland to create a larger national market.

The famous Puritan intolerance was part of a determined attempt to challenge the decadence and wastefulness of the rich aristocratic landlords of England. The Puritans wanted to use the power of state punishment to uproot old and still dominant ways of thinking and behaving.

The new ideas of the Puritans served the needs of merchant capitalist accumulation. The extreme discipline, thrift and modesty the Puritans demanded of each other corresponded to a new and emerging form of ownership and production. Their so-called “Protestant Ethic” was an early form of the capitalist ethic. From the beginning, the Puritan colonies intended to grow through capitalist trade–trading fish and fur with England while they traded pots, knives, axes, alcohol and other English goods with the Indians.

The New England were ruled by a government in which only the male heads of families had a voice. Women, Indians, slaves, servants, youth were neither heard nor represented. In the Puritan schoolbooks, the old law “honor thy father and thy mother” was interpreted to mean honoring “All our Superiors, whether in Family, School, Church, and Commonwealth.” And, the real truth was that the colonies were fundamentally controlled by the most powerful merchants.

The Puritan fathers believed they were the Chosen People of an infinite god and that this justified anything they did. They were Calvinists who believed that the vast majority of humanity was predestined to damnation. This meant that while they were firm in fighting for their own capitalist right to accumulate and prosper, they were quick to oppress the masses of people in Ireland, Scotland and North America, once they seized the power to set up their new bourgeois order. Those who rejected the narrow religious rules of the colonies were often simply expelled “out into the wilderness.”

The Massachusetts colony (north of Plymouth) was founded when Puritan stockholders had gotten control of an English trading company. The king had given this company the right to govern its own internal affairs, and in 1629 the stockholders simply voted to transfer the company to North American shores–making this colony literally a self-governing company of stockholders!

In U.S. schools, students are taught that the Mayflower compact of Plymouth contained the seeds of “modern democracy” and “rule of law.” But by looking at the actual history of the Puritans, we can see that this so-called “modern democracy” was (and still is) a capitalist democracy based on all kinds of oppression and serving the class interests of the ruling capitalists.

The reality of colonial massacre and enslavement

In short, the Puritan movement developed as an early revolutionary challenge to the old feudal order in England. They were the soul of primitive capitalist accumulation. And transferred to the shores of North America, they immediately revealed how heartless and oppressive that capitalist soul is.

The Birth of “The American Way of War”

In the Connecticut Valley, the powerful Pequot tribe had not entered an alliance with the British (as had the Narragansett, the Wampanoag, and the Massachusetts peoples). At first they were far from the centers of colonization. Then, in 1633, the British stole the land where the city of Hartford now sits–land which the Pequot had recently conquered from another tribe. That same year two British slave raiders were killed. The colonists demanded that the Indians who killed the slavers be turned over. The Pequot refused.

The Puritan preachers said, from Romans 13:2, “Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.” The colonial governments gathered an armed force of 240 under the command of John Mason. They were joined by a thousand Narragansett warriors. The historian Francis Jennings writes: “Mason proposed to avoid attacking Pequot warriors which would have overtaxed his unseasoned, unreliable troops. Battle, as such, was not his purpose. Battle is only one of the ways to destroy an enemy’s will to fight. Massacre can accomplish the same end with less risk, and Mason had determined that massacre would be his objective.”

The colonist army surrounded a fortified Pequot village on the Mystic River. At sunrise, as the inhabitants slept, the Puritan soldiers set the village on fire.

William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth, wrote: “Those that escaped the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed to pieces, others run through with their rapiers, so that they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire…horrible was the stink and scent thereof, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them.”

Mason himself wrote:

“It may be demanded…Should not Christians have more mercy and compassion? But…sometimes the Scripture declareth women and children must perish with their parents…. We had sufficient light from the word of God for our proceedings.”

Three hundred and fifty years later the Puritan phrase “a shining city on the hill” became a favorite quote of conservative speechwriters.

Discovering the Profits of Slavery

This so-called “Pequot war” was a one-sided murder and slaving expedition. Over 180 captives were taken. After consulting the bible again, in Leviticus 24, the colonial authorities found justification to kill most of the Pequot men and enslave the captured women and their children. Only 500 Pequot remained alive and free. In 1975 the official number of Pequot living in Connecticut was 21.

Some of the war captives were given to the Narragansett and Massachusetts allies of the British. Even before the arrival of Europeans, Native peoples of North America had widely practiced taking war captives from other tribes as hostages and slaves.

The remaining captives were sold to British plantation colonies in the West Indies to be worked to death in a new form of slavery that served the emerging capitalist world market. And with that, the merchants of Boston made a historic discovery: the profits they made from the sale of human beings virtually paid for the cost of seizing them.

One account says that enslaving Indians quickly became a “mania with speculators.” These early merchant capitalists of Massachusetts started to make genocide pay for itself. The slave trade, first in captured Indians and soon in kidnapped Africans, quickly became a backbone of New England merchant capitalism.

Thanksgiving in the Manhattan Colony

In 1641 the Dutch governor Kieft of Manhattan offered the first “scalp bounty”–his government paid money for the scalp of each Indian brought to them. A couple years later, Kieft ordered the massacre of the Wappingers, a friendly tribe. Eighty were killed and their severed heads were kicked like soccer balls down the streets of Manhattan. One captive was castrated, skinned alive and forced to eat his own flesh while the Dutch governor watched and laughed. Then Kieft hired the notorious Underhill who had commanded in the Pequot war to carry out a similar massacre near Stamford, Connecticut. The village was set fire, and 500 Indian residents were put to the sword.

A day of thanksgiving was proclaimed in the churches of Manhattan. As we will see, the European colonists declared Thanksgiving Days to celebrate mass murder more often than they did for harvest and friendship.

The Conquest of New England

By the 1670s there were about 30,000 to 40,000 white inhabitants in the United New England Colonies–6,000 to 8,000 able to bear arms. With the Pequot destroyed, the Massachusetts and Plymouth colonists turned on the Wampanoag, the tribe that had saved them in 1620 and probably joined them for the original Thanksgiving Day.

In 1675 a Christian Wampanoag was killed while spying for the Puritans. The Plymouth authorities arrested and executed three Wampanoag without consulting the tribal chief, King Philip.

As Mao Tsetung says: “Where there is oppression there is resistance.” The Wampanoag went to war.

The Indians applied some military lessons they had learned: they waged a guerrilla war which overran isolated European settlements and were often able to inflict casualties on the Puritan soldiers. The colonists again attacked and massacred the main Indian populations.

When this war ended, 600 European men, one-eleventh of the adult men of the New England Colonies, had been killed in battle. Hundreds of homes and 13 settlements had been wiped out. But the colonists won.

In their victory, the settlers launched an all-out genocide against the remaining Native people. The Massachusetts government offered 20 shillings bounty for every Indian scalp, and 40 shillings for every prisoner who could be sold into slavery. Soldiers were allowed to enslave any Indian woman or child under 14 they could capture. The “Praying Indians” who had converted to Christianity and fought on the side of the European troops were accused of shooting into the treetops during battles with “hostiles.” They were enslaved or killed. Other “peaceful” Indians of Dartmouth and Dover were invited to negotiate or seek refuge at trading posts–and were sold onto slave ships.

It is not known how many Indians were sold into slavery, but in this campaign, 500 enslaved Indians were shipped from Plymouth alone. Of the 12,000 Indians in the surrounding tribes, probably about half died from battle, massacre and starvation.

After King Philip’s War, there were almost no Indians left free in the northern British colonies. A colonist wrote from Manhattan’s New York colony: “There is now but few Indians upon the island and those few no ways hurtful. It is to be admired how strangely they have decreased by the hand of God, since the English first settled in these parts.”

In Massachusetts, the colonists declared a “day of public thanksgiving” in 1676, saying, “there now scarce remains a name or family of them [the Indians] but are either slain, captivated or fled.”

Fifty-five years after the original Thanksgiving Day, the Puritans had destroyed the generous Wampanoag and all other neighboring tribes. The Wampanoag chief King Philip was beheaded. His head was stuck on a pole in Plymouth, where the skull still hung on display 24 years later.

The descendants of these Native peoples are found wherever the Puritan merchant capitalists found markets for slaves: the West Indies, the Azures, Algiers, Spain and England. The grandson of Massasoit, the Pilgrim’s original protector, was sold into slavery in Bermuda.

Runaways and Rebels

But even the destruction of Indian tribal life and the enslavement of survivors brought no peace. Indians continued to resist in every available way. Their oppressors lived in terror of a revolt. And they searched for ways to end the resistance. The historian MacLeod writes:

“The first `reservations’ were designed for the `wild’ Irish of Ulster in 1609. And the first Indian reservation agent in America, Gookin of Massachusetts, like many other American immigrants had seen service in Ireland under Cromwell.”

The enslaved Indians refused to work and ran away. The Massachusetts government tried to control runaways by marking enslaved Indians: brands were burnt into their skin, and symbols were tattooed into their foreheads and cheeks.

A Massachusetts law of 1695 gave colonists permission to kill Indians at will, declaring it was

“lawful for any person, whether English or Indian, that shall find any Indians traveling or skulking in any of the towns or roads (within specified limits), to command them under their guard and examination, or to kill them as they may or can.”

The northern colonists enacted more and more laws for controlling the people. A law in Albany forbade any African or Indian slave from driving a cart within the city. Curfews were set up; Africans and Indians were forbidden to have evening get-togethers. On Block Island, Indians were given 10 lashes for being out after nine o’clock. In 1692 Massachusetts made it a serious crime for any white person to marry an African, an Indian or a mulatto. In 1706 they tried to stop the importation of Indian slaves from other colonies, fearing a slave revolt.

Celebrate?

Looking at this history raises a question: Why should anyone celebrate the survival of the earliest Puritans with a Thanksgiving Day? Certainly the Native peoples of those times had no reason to celebrate.

The ruling powers of the United States organized people to celebrate Thanksgiving Day because it is in their interest. That’s why they created it. The first national celebration of Thanksgiving was called for by George Washington. And the celebration was made a regular legal holiday later by Abraham Lincoln during the civil war (right as he sent troops to suppress the Sioux of Minnesota).

Washington and Lincoln were two presidents deeply involved in trying to forge a unified bourgeois nation-state out of the European settlers in the United States. And the Thanksgiving story was a useful myth in their efforts at U.S. nation-building. It celebrates the “bounty of the American way of life,” while covering up the brutal nature of this society.

America’s attempts to crush all Native Nation’s are stiil happening. How many know that Ex. President George Bush Sr. had over 40% of Native American’s sterilized?! Your not ever going to learn that in school, are you? And why hasn’t he been charged with these crimes as of yet?? How can a foster mother who’s been proven guilty of beating a 2 yr. old native girl to death, recieve only a $5000.00 fine when she was facing the death penility?? This is what we face EACH AND EVERY DAY. When is America going to wake up?

My heart is heavy. This brings to light the lies, murder, deceit, and tyranny that this great country was founded on. To think that in the year 2011, the original inhabitants of this great land, the very ones who made it possible for the white man to live here, are ignored, killed by neglect, forgotten, and still persecuted by their own government.
I pray God keep, bless, and prosper the peoples of my ancestors. I love you.

I have no use for George Bush, Sr. or Jr., but I wonder at the source for the quotation that he had 40% of Native Americans sterilized. Then I see one of your speakers is Ward Churchill, no more an Indian than I am, and I say, Oh, well…….

If you are appalled and aghast at this truth as I am, you must read”The Peoples History of the United States” by Howard Zinn. It is a myth buster and recounts from many souces the REAL history of the U.S. and not the propaganda spoon fed to you in school, which merely propagates the illusion of a grand and egalatarian society with every one getting their free bite at the apple of prosperity. The 99% will ,through modern technology of instant messages and photos ,present the reality of what is,not as the oligarchs with their news puppets and politicians wish us to think it is. Real information and critical thinking will ,in the end, root out these despots.

“Columbus was a wétiko. He was mentally ill or insane, the carrier of a terribly contagious psychological disease, the wétiko psychosis. The Native people he described were sane people with a healthy state of mind. Sanity or healthy normality among humans and other living creatures involves a respect for other forms of life and other individuals. I believe that is the way people have lived (and should live). The wétiko psychosis, and the problems it creates, have inspired many resistance movements and efforts at reform or revolution. Unfortunately, most of these efforts have failed because they have never diagnosed the wétiko as an insane person whose disease is extremely contagious.” —Jack D. Forbes, Columbus and Other Cannibals

MA RUSSIA DEFENDS HER FAMILY Posted on March 3, 2015 Please post & distribute. Nia:wen. MNN. Mar. 3, 2015. The incident in Moscow that killed Boris Nemstov reminds us of the events of one hundred years ago. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Hapsburg Dynasty was heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. They occupied Serbia which had always been a part of the Ru […]

“Crying Earth Rise Up” Premiere at the International Sedona Film Festival Article and photos by Natalie Hand Lakota Media Project/Owe Aku Censored News SEDONA, Ariz. -- The emotionally charged documentary “Crying Earth Rise Up” was showcased to a full house at this week’s Sedona International Film Festival. Filmmaker Suree Towfighnia and film editor Sharon K […]

Video: Native youths at summer camp doing radio for Crow Voices at Center Pole Grassroots Crow at Center Pole on Crow Nation creating new FM station By Brenda Norrell Censored News Govinda of Earthcycles is at Center Pole on the Crow Nation, in southeastern Montana, today setting up a new antennae upgrade for the new Crow Voices Radio's 91.1 LPFM. While […]

The Big Mountain Dineh Resistance: Still A Cornerstone By NaBahe (Bahe) Keediniihii (Katenay) 2015 Shared with permission at Censored News Big Mountain, Dinehtah (Navajo Lands) – In this remote high desert which is mostly covered with juniper and pinon pine forest in northeastern Arizona lays a region known as Black Mesa. The region was once so pristine but […]

CAN YOU TEACH ME HOW TO DIE? Posted on February 26, 2015 Mohawk Nation News MNN. Feb. 26, 2015. An army recruiter went into a high school to entice the kids into joining the military and becoming killers. He described how WWII Allied soldiers were taught how to smash jawbones while gouging eyes, crushing windpipes and snapping necks, and generally applying […]

Oyate Wahacanka Woecun Shield the People February 24, 2015 Censored News Greetings from the Lakota, Nakota, Dakota Nations. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Oyate Wahacanka Woecun, Shielding the People would like to thank President Barak Obama for his veto of the Keystone Pipeline, 270-152. We view this as positive recognit […]

Photos by Anna Rondon, Dine' Anna Rondon, Dine' said, "Kooper Indigenize Curley performing at Oak Flats Saturday Feb 21, 2015. We offered a prayer at the holy ground. We brought our spring water to this holy ground to signify spiritual pureness to nurture us and strengthen our dream visions for the battles within this spiritual war, its always […]

NAZI TERROR IN CANADA Posted on February 24, 2015 Please post & distribute. Nia:wen. MNN. Feb. 24, 2015. As the Gestapo said in 1933, “As long as the police carries out the will of the leadership, it is acting legally.” Harper’s new anti-terrorist bill C-51 is setting up the secret police of Canada, carrying Canadians into the fast lane onto the road to […]

Long Walk 2 in Denver and Western Shoshone land. Photo 1: Protesting Newmont gold mining in Denver, at the drum is Western Shoshone Carl 'Bad Bear' Sampson. Photo 2 Daniel, Miwok, and Kenzie, Dine' at Denver powwow. Photo 3 Govinda's Earthcycles radio broadcasting bus, live with Long Talk Radio at the Denver Capitol. Photo 4: The wonderfu […]

Govinda's Earthcycles radio bus on the National Mall in DC at end of Long Walk 2. Photo Brenda Norrell Oscar Honoree Harry Belafonte joined Native American long walkers at the end of the Longest Walk 2 in DC By Brenda Norrell Censored News Feb. 23, 2015 Harry Belafonte was honored at the Oscars last night for his activism. At the end of the Longest Walk […]

16th Annual OGLALA COMMEMORATION "LEONARD PELTIER DAY" JUNE 25 and 26 2015 In conjunction with the Oglala Commemoration Event, will will be hosting the ILPDC – Support Meeting. We invite all Leonard Peltier Support Groups, individuals, family and friends to attend this important meeting. We will be discussing a new phase in Leonard’s struggle for f […]

SKULKING STEVIE Posted on February 22, 2015 Please post & distribute. MNN. Feb. 22, 2015. Prime Minister Harper is setting in place the rise of the Fourth Reich here in Canada. Harper is beefing up Canada’s manufacturing sector to make bombs, bullets, tanks and nuclear weapons for his economic miracle. There will be jobs in factories and in security. Tho […]

With great sadness and respect for a powerful life, we share that Elder Matriarch relocation resister, Ida Mae Clinton, of Star Mountain, has passed onto the spirit world. With the permission of her family, we share this video–made by NaBahe Katenay Keedihiihii this spring–in memory of Ida Mae’s life. Her family sends appreciation to all […]

Below is the letter that the community members impacted by impoundments delivered today at the Navajo Nation Council Chambers in Window Rock: Requesting immediate Support for so-called “Hopi Partition Land ( HPL)” residents whose livestock are being impounded by Hopi Rangers and Federal Agents. The Hopi rangers and Federal agents used military tactic operati […]

All funds raised will go directly to Dineh families on the Black Mesa ‘HPL’ lands who have been aggressively targeted with livestock impoundments starting on October 22, 2014. Click here for donation page So far, three Black Mesa families have had their entire herds of sheep & goats impounded and are facing fees totaling about […]

Clarence and Mary Lou Blackrock of Cactus Valley are sitting up all night by the fire, unable to sleep for fear of their sheep being taken. This distress endangers the elder’s health. This family wanted these pictures shared so that the world can see the suffering at the hands of the federal government and Department […]

Hopi Rangers arrested two individuals and impounded 120 sheep this morning at the homesite of Tom and Etta Begay in Red Willow Springs. Heavily armed rangers guarded and blocked nearby dirt road entrances as well. “The Hopi Rangers came for our homestead early this morning. They tried to arrest my Aunt Etta who is almost […]

UPDATE from HPL (Hopi Partition Land) residents: Shirley Tohannie and elder Caroline Tohannie had their entire herd of 65 sheep impounded by the Hopi Rangers (US federal government) Tuesday, October 22, 2014.If the fines aren’t paid the sheep will go to auction, and the family is being told that the sheep will not be able […]

*******BMIS is in the process of updating our contacts. In order to keep receiving updates from BMIS, please confirm your information here. Thank you!! ***** “This land is being taken away because they’ve got power in Washington. We were put here with our Four Sacred Mountains and we were created to live here. We know […]

Thanks so much for getting the word out about the Big Mountain Training Camp and helping to honor 40 years of Dineh resistance to cultural genocide, forced relocation, and large-scale coal mining. This is a important moment for building a broad-coalition of resistance against Peabody. The camp is a collaborative effort of The Elders Circle […]

BIG MOUNTAIN SPRING TRAINING CAMP MAY 16th-23rd, 2014 BIG MOUNTAIN, DINEH NATION #Honor40Years #Not1MoreRELOCATION #KeepitintheGround “What we are trying to save—the Female Mountain—is alive. She is alive, she has blood flowing through her veins, which is the Navajo Aquifer, and the coal they are digging is Her liver. They are destroying Her.”–Marie Gladue, […]

View this email in your browser Sovereign Dineh Nation Survival School 2013 Last year, the SDN Survival School reconvened after a 20 year hiatus. This year, the revival continued! For two weekends in October—the 5-6th and the12-14th—there was an “intergenerational forum for the sharing of traditional and contemporary survival skills” hosted at a family’s hom […]

Anti-Colonial Thanksgiving Dinner pamphlet 2008 This is a zine from the Guelph Anarchist distro Mounting Bedlam Distro. It is from an annual dinner that where Anarchists host Indigenous folks to share their stories of resistance. It has spoken to me for along time sine i found a copy of it at the Taala Hooghan Infoshop. […]

Many of you may remember the recent victory of saving Quitovac to a proposed toxic waste dump. Well Again this Sacred site is under siege. Now to the threat of a gold mine… This is a Resolution from Traditional O’odham elders in opposition to the proposed mine that was recently posted from the O’odham Solidarity Project […]

The war against the Tohono O’odham continues near the border. See the latest technology the U.S. Government has deployed on the T.O. community in this article below: Homeland Security pitches new spy towers at Tohono O’odham BY: Brenda Norrell Censored News http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com TOHONO O’ODHAM NATION — (Nov. 23, 2011) The US Homeland Security is […]

Resist ALEC this November in Scottsdale, AZ! AZ Resist alec! ARIZONA IS CALLING FOR A DIVERSITY OF TACTICS TO SHUT DOWN THE UPCOMING ALEC CONFERENCE IN SCOTTSDALE, AZ ON NOVEMBER 30TH. ALEC thinks they’re meeting in Scottsdale, AZ this November… The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a massive non-profit body that brings corporations and legisl […]

While preparing to to write my own short reflection on the current “occupy” movement I asked Ofelia Rivas if she would like to contribute to the zine as well. Here is her letter. This will also be in the new Don’t just (re)occupy zine. Thank you again so much for your contribution Ofelia! For more news […]

****This is a preview of a short article for a zine I am compiling in response to the current sweeping “occupy” movement. The zine will be released soon…. WHY (RE)OCCUPYING WON’T WORK…. September 17, 2011 hundreds of people answer a call-out from Adbusters maga- zine to “occupy” Wall Street. Today October 14, 2011 less than […]

We are please to announce the creation of the group named THE INDIGENOUS SOLIDARITY NETWORK. *See the About tab above and links section to the right. An inspiring video: (rights reserved to the creator)

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the highest judicial body of the Organization of American States (OAS), reached a decision in favor of eight Mapuche individuals who claimed that Chile’s use of the Anti-Terrorism Law against them violated their rights. … Continue reading →

Published yesterday in the Santiago Times, the Chilean Congress has voted to bring Chile’s Minister of the Interior, Rodrigo Peñailillo, in for formal questioning on the current administration’s handling (since taking over in March) of the ongoing Mapuche conflict in the … Continue reading →

A team of Chilean researchers has recently published a report on the mental health of Aymara schoolchildren in Northern Chile, suggesting that involvement with their culture may act as a protective factor against psychological distress, including anxiety and hopelessness. The … Continue reading →

It was reported yesterday (01-15-2015) in Mapuexpress that the Mapuche-Huilliche Community of Wente Caulín was granted rights over coastal waters in Chiloé. Specifically, the coastal area near the community was designated an “Indigenous Peoples’ Marine Coastal Area” under Chilean law, which grants the community … Continue reading →

In recent days, the Chilean government, through CONADI (Chile’s Indigenous development corporation) has returned title to lands in two different Mapuche communities. In the Mapuche community of Manuel Levinao (located in the Lautaro commune of the Araucanía region), 250 hectares … Continue reading →

The United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) completed its 83rd session on August 30th in Geneva. During the session, CERD discussed Chile’s treatment of Indigenous peoples and offered some recommendations for the future. Specifically, CERD asked … Continue reading →

Barrick Gold, owner of the Pascua Lama mine that spans the Chile-Argentina border, appeared in front of a Chilean court again on Monday, August 26th. This time, however, the multi-billion dollar corporation admitted that it had violated environmental regulations in … Continue reading →

On Monday, June 24, 2013, Pope Francis spent 45 minutes meeting and talking with the leader of the Qom community, Félix Diaz about his community’s struggles to have their rights recognized. During the interaction, Diaz discussed the plight of his … Continue reading →

On Wednesday, May 29th, the Chilean police force unveiled a test project designed to improve relations between the police force and the Mapuche people — a relationship that, in certain parts of Chile, has involved significant amounts of violence. The … Continue reading →

The Pascua Lama gold mine — owned by Barrick Gold — was ordered shut down earlier this year when a Diaguita community successfully challenged the mine’s environmental record in Chilean court. Ultimately, the company was fined US$16 million and ordered … Continue reading →

The following article was penned by Michael Toledano and appeared on Vice News. As the Harper government’s Bill C-51 moves to extend anti-terrorism legislation to include anyone who interferes with the “critical infrastructure,” “territorial integrity,” or “economic and financial stability of Canada,” a leaked report from the RCMP’s Critical Infrastructure I […]

Despite being continents apart, the struggles of the Kurds and Zapatistas share a similar purpose: to resist capitalism, liberate women and build autonomy. Petar Stanchev is finishing a degree in Latin American Studies and Human Rights at the University of Essex. He has previously lived and studied in Mexico and has been involved in the Zapatista … Continue […]

The Seminole* nation of Florida was born when rebellious Lower Muscogee moved into north-central Florida, seeking to separate themselves from the increasingly coercive and european-style centralized governments and slave-based economies favored by sellout Muscogee leaders. The Seminole would insist on the preservation of dispersed power that had been charact […]

MNN. Feb. 26, 2015. An army recruiter went into a high school to entice the kids into joining the military and becoming killers. He described how WWII Allied soldiers were taught how to smash jawbones while gouging eyes, … Continue reading →

Please post & distribute. Nia:wen. MNN. Feb. 24, 2015. As the Gestapo said in 1933, “As long as the police carries out the will of the leadership, it is acting legally.” Harper’s new anti-terrorist bill C-51 is setting up … Continue reading →

Please post & distribute. Nia:wen. MNN. Feb. 20, 2015. Notice how the media panels of “experts of nothing” try to tell us what the government line is. They repeatedly call critics of government and corporate theft of resources and … Continue reading →

Please post & distribute. Nia:wen. MNN. Feb. 18, 2015. The invaders to our land were Radicalized Christians. They were sent here under Papal Bulls to murder the Ongwe’hon:weh and steal everything we have in the name of Jesus Christ. … Continue reading →

Please post & distribute. Nia:wen. MNN. Feb. 9, 2015. On May 18, 1997, over 100 Haudenosaunne/Iroquois were brutally beaten by New York State Troopers. They disrupted a sacred tobacco burning ceremony at Onondaga, the capital of the Iroquois Confederacy. … Continue reading →

Please post and distribute. Thank you. MNN. Feb. 4, 2015. To scare us Prime Minister Harper says we are at war with the Islamic State!! That “a great evil has been descending over our world”. Does he mean himself? … Continue reading →

Please post and distribute. Nia:wen. MNN. Feb. 2, 2015. At the recent meeting with the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake Inc. to object to the attempted illegal expropriation of our Kahnion’ke:haka land known as the “Seigneury”, Chief Mike Delisle said, … Continue reading →

Denver, Co. – You may recognize him from such films as Last of the Mohicans and Natural Born Killers, but Russell Means was much more than a face on the silver screen. He was a cultural, political, artistic and visionary American Indian leader, described during his life as “the most famous American Indian of the [...]

Pearl Means talks with Lourdes of how she and Russell met and Russell Means’ latest book “If You’ve Forgotten The Names Of The Clouds, You’ve Lost Your Way” Mrs. Means will have book signing at the following places: Friday, July 26th @ 8:00 p.m. Festival Hall at Argiro Student Union, Maharishi University, Fairfiield, Iowa Wednesday, [...]

Russell Charles Means (November 10, 1939 – October 22, 2012) was an Oglala Sioux activist for the rights of Native American people and libertarian political activist. He became a prominent member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) after joining the organization in 1968, and helped organize notable events that attracted national and international media cov […]

Armando Rendon has printed an excerpt from Russell’s book “If You’ve Forgotten the Names of the Clouds, You’ve Lost Your Way : An Introduction to American Indian Thought & Philosophy.” You may find at http://somosenescrito.blogspot.com/2013/04/we-are-all-related.html#!/2013/04/we-are-all-related.html If you wish to purchase either the softcover or Kindle […]

By lakotahfreedom ¶ Posted in Sovereignty ¶ First time I remember seeing Russell was at the Greengrass Sundance. He called my Grandma Ella up during the Giveaway. Even as a young boy, I was impressed. From that day forward, as a youth, I saw Bruce Lee, Evil Knievel, Muhammad Ali, and Russell Means as almost [...]

On October 22, 2012, Indian rights activist Russell Means passed on after a magnificent life of struggle to better the lives of American Indians. Means had a tremendous impact on Native American struggles of the latter part of the 20th century and he will be sorely missed, but his passing was a huge loss [...]

Five Key Indigenous Peoples Issues For The Week Of March 29 - April 7, 2014: United States, Paraguay, Belize, Philippines, Bangladesh United States: Final Conclusions And Recommendations On United States Issued By The UN Human Rights Committee Call For Measures To Protect Sacred Areas On Friday, March 28, 2014, the 110th session of the United Nations (UN) Hu […]

Maranhão: Port Development Brings Progress To Brazil – At A Price Mario Osava, 2014 “We are victims of progress,” complained Osmar Santos Coelho, known as Santico. His fishing community has disappeared, displaced to make way for a port complex on São Marcos bay, to the west of São Luis, the capital of the state of Maranhão in Brazil’s northeast. The Ponta da […]

United States: Final Conclusions And Recommendations On United States Issued By The UN Human Rights Committee Call For Measures To Protect Sacred Areas On Friday, March 28, 2014, the 110th session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee (HRC) issued its Concluding Observations on the United States (US) compliance with the International Covenant on […]

Northern Territory: Indigenous People Core To Success In Northern Development Push Policies for northern development must account for the realities of the extensive marginally productive lands of the north found outside of the major urban centres, according to NAILSMA’s recent submission to the Joint Select Committee on Northern Australia. Key to this is ful […]

West Papua: Grave Human Rights Abuses In Papua Must Be Considered By Courts Of Law Statement by Yan Christian Warinussy, Executive-Director of LP3BP on 7 April 2014 Speaking as a human rights defender working in the Land of Papua, I urge the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) in Jakarta to immediately investigate the maltreatment and torture by me […]

Paraguay: Mysterious Epidemic Kills Recently-Contacted Tribe One By One A mysterious epidemic is steadily killing recently-contacted members of a South American tribe, Survival International has warned on World Health Day (April 7). Members of the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode tribe in Paraguay are rapidly succumbing to a TB-like illness which goes undetected in medi […]

Belize: SATIIM And Indigenous Peoples - Another Legal Victory Free Prior and Informed Consent – A must in Belize SATIIM, the foremost environmental and human right organization in Belize along with four indigenous Q’eqchi’ Maya communities have achieved another monumental legal victory yesterday. The Belize Supreme Court Justice, The Honourable Michelle Aran […]

Philippines: Justice For William Bugatti - Tuwali Indigenous Rights Worker Killed We are enraged over the extrajudicial killing of William Bugatti, a Tuwali and a devoted human rights worker on March 25, 2014, at around 6-7 in the evening. William is a Regional Council Member of the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance-KARAPATAN, a Regional Council Member of the […]

Bangladesh: Indigenous Women Representatives Attend The CSW58 As A Part Of Global Indigenous Leaders The fifty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW58) took place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 10 to 21 March 2014. Like each year, this year thousands of civil society activists, representatives of member states, UN […]

Ecuador: Judge Kaplan Let Chevron Make "Mockery Of Justice" In New York RICO Case A new report concludes Chevron made a “mockery of justice” and bribed a witness during its retaliatory RICO case in New York, leading to a likely reversal by U.S. appellate courts and a growing risk for the oil giant in jurisdictions where the villagers are trying […]

Guatemala: International Solidarity With Victims Of Hudbay Minerals-CGN As Criminal Trial Against Former Head Of Security Is Delayed Indigenous Maya Q’eqchi’ victims of a September 2009 violent attack outside a then-Canadian owned nickel mine were once again disheartened when it was announced today that the criminal trial of Mynor Padilla, former head of sec […]

Oaxaca: On Mexican Isthmus, Indigenous Communities Oppose Massive Energy Projects - Statement From Indigenous Communities Santiago Navarro, 2014 The wind corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, stretching across the southern Mexican states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco and Veracruz, is one of the most important in Latin America in terms of corporate investment […]

Australia: Next Step Towards Indigenous Constitutional Recognition The Australian Government has established a panel to conduct a review into public support for Indigenous constitutional recognition. Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Nigel Scullion, announced the review today, in accordance with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Recognition Ac […]

Five Key Indigenous Peoples Issues For The Week Of March 20 - 28, 2014: Canada, Melanesia, Belize, Bangladesh, West Papua Canada: Kawacatoose First Nation Becomes First Community To Take Full Control Over Its Land And Resource Moneys Opting into legislation removes Indian Act restrictions, enabling First Nations to act faster on economic opportunities Aborig […]

Belize: Correcting The Corporate Ignorance Of US Capital On The Maya Land Rights Struggle On March 27th, 2014, US Capital through its attorney Michael Peyrefitte gave an interview to the various media houses where he boldly stated with certainty that, ‘The only time this matter [US Capital oil activities] was brought to court was when there was an issue as t […]

Ontario: Major Lumber Company Vows To Avoid Grassy Narrows Conflict Wood EACOM Timber Corporation has committed not to use conflict wood from Grassy Narrows First Nation Territory, home of Canada's longest running Indigenous logging blockade. The promise comes just one week before Ontario's contentious new ten-year clearcut logging plan for Grassy […]

Philippines: With Escalation Of Political Killings, Karapatan Demands BS Aquino Step Down "Karapatan strongly demands that Pres. Noynoy Aquino steps down from office for his administration’s accountability for the 169 victims of extra-judicial killings, from July 2010 to December 2013, and for the 19 killed for this year alone, including the killing of […]

by Chaya Go On November 29, 2014, a crowd gathered at Burnaby Mountain, unceded xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) territories. The event was a celebration after blockades sustained for over 3 months by Burnaby residents and First Nation members succeeded in pressuring Kinder Morgan to remove equipm […]

by Ariel Smith I’m a filmmaker and an artist. I am also a Nehiyaw Iskwew, and a survivor of girlhood abuse and exploitation. These facts are at the root of my practice and have influenced how I see most everything in the world: colonialism, gender, relationships, economics, class, social hierarchies, feminism. My lived experiences with […]

By Naomi Sayers As I sit here drafting this, I am wondering what can I write that I haven’t already written, or that other people haven’t already stated elsewhere? There isn’t much more that I can say, or that we can say collectively. It is now 25 years since the first march in Vancouver’s downtown […]

by Eric Ritskes Black life, Blackness, “Black holding on, Black making a way out of no way” is always in excess of the antiblack settler colonial state. And, in its excess, it is always threatening to the order and sense making of the state. This excess is carried in and on the bodies of Black […]

by Manu Vimalassery[1] As many of us know, thousands of individual scholars and several scholarly associations within the U.S. and beyond have publicly declared a boycott and censure of the University of Illinois, for its firing of Steven Salaita. In its immediate aims – Salaita’s reinstatement, with damages, and sanctions for the Chancellor and Board of […] […]

2014 was the first year that Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society published three full issues! Each issue requires an incredible amount of collaboration, effort and community and increasing out output was not an easy task. A large part of being able to do this relies on the community who acts as peer-reviewers for each of our […]

We’ve published our newest journal issue – as always, open access and available for everyone to read, download and share! It is a special issue on Indigenous land-based education, guest edited by Matthew Wildcat, Stephanie Irlbacher-Fox, Glen Coulthard and Mandee McDonald. It features a wide array of land-based education projects through articles, short stor […]

This is the edited transcript of a conversation that took place in Edmonton, AB on October 18, 2014. You can listen to the full conversation with the MP3 above, or read the transcript below! Eric Ritskes: This is Eric Ritskes, I’m the editor of Decolonization journal, and I’m sitting down for a chat with […]

Listen to the interview above, or read the transcript of the interview below! Eric Ritskes: This is Eric Ritskes [Editor of Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society] and I’m here with Hayden King. Hayden is a professor and the Director of the Centre for Indigenous Governance at Ryerson University here in Toronto, and we’re here chatting in his [… […]

by Sean Carleton ** Editor’s note: If you have not seen the movie Rhymes for Young Ghouls, this article likely contains spoilers. ** Download the PDF version of this article here. Written and directed by Mi’gmaq filmmaker Jeff Barnaby, Rhymes for Young Ghouls offers an unflinching fictional account of Indigenous agency in the face of […]

Inspired by the victory of B.C.’s Tsilhqot’in Nation, Kenneth Francis of New Brunswick’s Elsipogtog First Nation wants to lead his people into court Vidya Kauri, Vancouver Observer, Mar 4th, 2015 Kenneth Francis was six when his father’s job-search experience became a lesson that would shape the rest of his life. Circa 1950, Joseph Francis, a member of the M […]

Areva’s proposal for underground and open-pit mines before Nunavut Impact Review Board By Bob Weber, CBC News/The Canadian Press, Mar 02, 2015 Hilu Tagoona was just a girl the first time uranium miners proposed to develop a massive deposit of the radioactive metal near her home town of Baker Lake, Nunavut. “I was about 11,” she […]

Hundreds of women are complaining about sexual harassment inside the RCMP. A special report by Nancy Macdonald and Charlie Gillis Nancy Macdonald, MacLean’s, February 27, 2015 The role of RCMP spokesperson in B.C. is a big one. Mounties confident and clever enough to land the job become the effective voice of policing in a province […]

By SONIA PEREZ D., Associated Press, February 21, 2015 GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A group of Guatemalan musicians is on a mission to breathe life into a pre-Columbian language and heritage through a thoroughly modern genre: hip-hop. Calling themselves Balam Ajpu, which means Jaguar Warrior or Warrior of Light, they rap in the ancient Mayan […]

By D.C. Fraser, Leader-Post March 2, 2015 REGINA — Fifteen inmates being held in a high-risk area of Regina’s Provincial Correctional Centre are on a hunger strike. They’re protesting against the prison’s decision to refuse them access to cultural programming, such as sweat lodges, and access to the outdoors. Joshua Bird, who has previously been […] […]

John Lee McLaughlin, Rapid City Journal, Feb 26, 2015 In frigid, windy but sunny conditions, more than 100 protesters Thursday marched on the Rapid City-School Administration Center downtown as part of a movement calling for government accountability to resolve social injustices toward Native Americans. The Thursday march coincided with the release a 12-page […]

By Dan Fumano, The Province, February 27, 2015 VANCOUVER — A Vancouver man who allegedly acted as a rogue, unlicensed notary officiating documents for Freemen-on-the-Land and others in B.C. is set to appear in B.C. Supreme Court on Friday. The Society of Notaries Public of B.C. (SNPBC) has filed a court application saying a man […]

https://www.youtube.com/embed/NR3dnZlBcV0“> Published on Feb 24, 2013 by Talli Wahyas Forced Sterilizations, Racist Terror, and the Native American Uprising of 1972-1973 by Steven Argue http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013… Music by Redbone Today In Native American History Text from Native Sun News, Feb 27, 2015 On February 27, 1973, the Occupation of Wo […]

Report makes ‘false inferences,’ borders on ‘misguided hysteria’ By Peter O’Neil, Vancouver Sun, February 25, 2015 OTTAWA — An internal RCMP report’s portrayal of northern B.C. as one of two Canadian regions most vulnerable to violent, anti-pipeline extremists working with aboriginal radicals to sabotage “critical infrastructure” is “absolutely bizarre,” one […]

By Jennifer Saltman, The Province, February 24, 2015 Three coastal B.C. First Nations are once again fighting the federal government’s decision to open herring roe fisheries in their areas, arguing fish stocks have not recovered enough to permit commercial fishing. It’s the second year in a row the Nuu-chah-nulth, Heiltsuk and Haida have voiced their […] […]

Broadwell, a former Army Reserve officer, had been writing a biography, All In: The Education of General David Petraeus, during their affair. Petraeus, who was appointed to lead the CIA by President Obama in 2011, resigned his post shortly after the president’s re-election in 2012. He had also previously served as commander of the International […]

In a recent survey, we ask if there is solid evidence that the Earth has been warming over the past few decades. Seven-in-ten Hispanics say the Earth is warming because of human activity, a higher share than among whites (44%). More than half (56%) of blacks say the same. About two-in-ten Hispanics and whites and […]

The leak by Egypt’s Mekameleen TV, believed to date back to January 14, shows how the UAE supported and funded the military coup in the African country in 2013. A part of the audio reveals that Sisi’s office manager, General Abbas Kamil, asks UAE Minister of State Sultan Al-Jaber to provide the Egyptian army with […]

Witnesses identified the man by his street name, “Africa,” according to the Los Angeles Times. Witnesses said he had been living in a tent on Skid Row for several months and had spent some time in a mental health facility. There have been 12 fatal officer-involved incidents in downtown Los Angeles since 2000, according to […]

But Smith’s article is important, and not only for helping to confirm (and in The Weekly Standard no less!) reports of Israel’s effective cooperation (even sharing intelligence!) with al-Nusra/al-Qaeda. Without necessarily meaning to, the article also justifies the realpolitik that underpins Israel’s position, which, notwithstanding Smith’s weasel-worded sub […]

Originally posted on APNS Public Radyo:Summary: TheAngryindian offers his thoughts on the untimely transition of North American Indigenous activist and Leonard Peltier supporter Ms. Joan Rodriguez (known on Twitter as @Joanie399) and the passing of actor Leonard Nimoy and his importance as a cultural icon for people of mixed-heritage around the world. Spoken […]

However, Kozin also warns that the predictions made by the intelligence firm do reveal something about US intentions toward Russia. Commenting that Stratfor “works closely with the CIA, which has always led a campaign against Russia,” Kozin notes that the predictions about Russia “supposedly falling apart on our own” hide specific plans for actions aimed […] […]

However, it would not be the last time Phelps or the church caught the attention of federal law enforcement. He appears in FBI records in almost every year from 1993 to 2006. By August 2005, the bureau said in a memo that the Westboro Baptist Church founder was “well known to the FBI.” Occasionally, FBI […]

For 16 years the Consulting Association compiled a secret database on thousands of construction workers. The files in this shabby two-room office had names, addresses and National Insurance numbers, comments by managers, newspaper clippings. The organisation acted as a covert vetting service funded by the industry. When people applied for work on building si […]

The key was really a hashed version of the plugin’s installation timestamp, according to Montpas, and to determine it, all an attacker would have to do is go to a site that caches information about when sites were started, like the Internet Archive. This narrows values down considerably and once an attacker has secured the […]

According to the reports, then-Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan received a note from “unknown sources” on June 28, 2012, threatening a cyber attack “against South Africa’s banking and financial sectors.” The hand-delivered letter gave the government just 30 days to achieve the “discontinuation of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign and the rem […]

Gemalto, which is the largest manufacturer of SIM cards in the world, launched an internal investigation after The Intercept six days ago revealed that the NSA and its British counterpart GCHQ hacked the company and cyberstalked its employees. In the secret documents, provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the intelligence agencies described a success […]

Update: Google admits sharp practice in Kenya | News | PC Pro: By Stewart MitchellPosted on 13 Jan 2012 at 16:00Google has admitted guilt after being accused of accessing the servers of a Kenyan business directory and trying to poach its customers.According to contacts compendium Mocality, it caught Google accessing its database of African businesses and the […]

Google 'improperly' accessed Kenyan rival Mocality's database | Technology | guardian.co.uk: Google has confessed that a number of people working for it "improperly" accessed the customer database of a rival company in Kenya to boost its own business.The US search giant said it was "mortified" to learn that staff illicitly […]

Google 'Improperly' Accessed Rival Mocality's Database | News & Opinion | PCMag.com: Google on Friday apologized for a scam in which its employees improperly accessed the database of Mocality, a Kenyan Internet database company, in order to steal its customers.In a statement, Nelson Matto, vice president for Google product and engineering […]

Shut Down the Corporations - Direct Action Resources Why Direct Action?The F29 Shut Down the Corporations National Day of Action is calling on activists across the country to engage in day of mass non-violent direct action. Direct action is a means of obstructing practices we protest and reclaiming our agency in creating the world we live in. Direct action m […]

Samson Cree bylaw interests Blood Tribe | Local News | Lethbridge Herald: Blood Tribe chief and council will be watching what happens in the wake of Samson Cree band members passing a bylaw that gives council the right to evict troublemakers.Under the bylaw, which still requires approval from the federal government, any 25 residents could apply to have anoth […]

Apple Releases List Of Its Suppliers, Discloses Labor Violations | TechCrunch:Apple has, for the very first time, released a report of its suppliers. There are 156 suppliers listed in the PDF the company published (available here), including big names like Sony, Intel, Samsung and Foxconn (also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.), which dragged Apple’s […]

BAHRAIN - News | Peter Clifford Online: This is the true face of Bahrain’s Al-Khalifa Government reflected in the destroyed features of Nader Abdul Enam, a young man who was shot in the mouth last night by police firing a stun grenade directly at his head.http://www.petercliffordonline.com/bahrain-newsNader Abdul Enam, Mutilated by the Government of BahrainN […]

Fact Sheet: Jean-Claude Duvalier Can Be Prosecuted | Open Society Justice Initiative | Open Society Foundations - OSF: Jean-Claude Duvalier, the former dictator of Haiti, returned to his country after 25 years in exile in France on January 16, 2011. He is currently under investigation for offenses including corruption, attempted murder and sequestration, or […]

Former SPD officer Ian Birk will not face charges in shooting of woodcarver | Seattle Times Newspaper: Federal prosecutors will not charge former Seattle police Officer Ian Birk in the shooting death of First Nations woodcarver John T. Williams.Sources have confirmed that a grand jury reviewing the Aug. 30, 2010, shooting determined it could not charge the o […]

Israel's Draconian Infiltration Law :: www.uruknet.info :: informazione dal medio oriente :: information from middle east :: [vs-1]: The new measure targets refugees and asylum seekers and families. Minimally, they'll be imprisoned for three years. However, detentions may be extended indefinitely.The law only allows judicial oversight by an adminis […]

PRC: Palestinian refugees in Iraq Should Be Protected :: www.uruknet.info :: informazione dal medio oriente :: information from middle east :: [vs-1]: The Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) in London is extremely concerned over the constant attacks against Palestinian Refugees in Iraq. The centre calls for an immediate protection for those refugees through the […]

Somalia: ICRC Suspends Food and Seed Distributions: By NewsfromAfricaMOGADISHU — The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in a statement to the media has decided to temporarily suspend its distributions intended for 1.1 million people in urgent need after having its food and seed relief commodities blocked in parts of central and southern Somalia. […]

I CARE - News - Internet Centre Anti Racism Europe: 11/1/2012- A court in the Czech town of Most has handed down a verdict in the matter of an attack that was committed against human rights activist Ondøej Cakl during a neo-Nazi demonstration in November 2008 in Litvínov. The court did not award compensation for damages. The convicted assailant, František Br […]

China Worker: Two-weeks imprisonment for protest action against MTR fare rises is part of government drive to criminalise struggleSocialist Action (CWI in Hong Kong) reportersThe verdict from Hong Kong’s Eastern Magistrates’ Court yesterday is an ominous warning to all those wanting to fight against the government’s neo-liberal and increasingly repressive ag […]

Estonia presses ahead with Nazi exoneration plans: Voice of Russia: Announcements in Estonia say next spring will see a nationwide debate about a draft law to declare the Estonian Nazi collaborators who fought alongside the Nazi SS heroic 'freedom fighters'.In the meantime, papers in Germany, including the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Tag […]

badil.orgIsrael’s High Court exposes Israeli apartheid regime13th January 2012 – BADIL Resource center for Palestinian residency and Refugee RightsOn 11th January 2012, Israel’s High Court rejected a legal challenge, brought by Adalah, ACRI and other Israeli human rights organizations, to one of the most obvious pieces of Israeli apartheid legislation: the 2 […]

HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSESEver since the Indonesians set foot on Papuan soil, human rights abuses have been the rule of the day. In the antiquity or the dream time, the Indonesian quest had been Papuan slaves and the birds of paradise. Since 1962 however the quest has been for the rich mineral deposits [gold, copper, nickel, oil etc.], the vast virgin forest with i […]

Demands for Clegg to apologise for insulting Scottish voters: By a Newsnet reporterSNP MSPs have demanded that Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg apologise for comments he made during a recent visit to Scotland when he characterised supporters of independence as "extremists".In an interview with the Scotsman newspaper, Mr Clegg was asked whether he describe […]

Over the last few months – as Peru helped guide the United Nations climate negotiations – five separate oil spills along a main oil pipeline through the Amazon have spewed thick black clots of crude across jungle and swamp and carpeted local fishing lagoons with dead fish.

Earlier this month, the world's eyes were on Lima as 196 nations debated what to do about climate change at the UN COP20 climate summit. While world leaders debated, negotiated, signed and didn't sign agreements, Amazon Watch and our allies sounded the alarm on the critical importance of the Amazon rainforest and indigenous ancestral territories in […]

This month's hearing before Canada's Supreme Court was Chevron's last appeal to try to stop a full enforcement trial. Chevron audaciously asked the court to ignore all precedent, and to change the law just for them.

After years of waiting for the Brazilian government to sort out their land rights, the 13,000 Munduruku Indians, who live beside the Tapajós river in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, have decided to take action. Besides temporarily occupying an office belonging to Funai, the Brazilian government's Indian agency, they have started to demarcate the boun […]

On the morning of December 5th, a dark piece of news began circulating at the U.N. climate talks in Lima: The body of José Isidro Tendetza Antún, a leading Ecuadorian indigenous-rights and anti-mining campaigner, had been found in a riverside grave near his village, his remains bound in rope, showing signs of beating and torture.

I walk a small path, surrounded by an infinite number of trees, plants and the scent of flowers. My lungs fill with pure, fresh air when I take a deep breath. My bare feet touch the ground, damp from yesterday's rain. This is my home. This is where I grew up. This is what I want to share with my children one day.

From the Amazon to the Andes, thousands of activists marched through the streets of Lima on Wednesday to demand a just solution to climate change. The march through the traffic-choked streets put a human face on the United Nations climate negotiations, a process largely confined to suited bureaucrats working behind the high walls of a military compound in a […]

Amazon Watch and indigenous allies joined thousands of marchers yesterday in defense of the rainforest and territorial rights and to demand that voices from the Amazon be heard at the United Nations COP20 climate negotiations.

Ottawa, Canada – Trying to make good on its promise of a "lifetime of litigation" to avoid paying for a clean-up of Ecuador's rainforest, Chevron will ask the Supreme Court of Canada this week to create a new jurisdictional hurdle that likely would close off the country's courts to indigenous communities seeking to enforce their $9.5 bill […]

"When we lose the Amazon, we not only create emissions, but we lose the climate stabilizing function of the forest," Amazon Watch founder Atossa Soltani told Democracy Now! at the "Women Leading Solutions on the Frontlines of Climate Change" event hosted by WECAN around the UNFCCC COP20 climate summit currently taking place in Lima, Peru. […]

"[REDD gives] permits to pollute," Smithie told the Tribunal. "[It means] forests of the world acting as a sponge for northern industrial countries' pollution. They can pollute if they grab forests in the global south."

Yesterday hundreds of indigenous peoples from communities across the Amazon joined together on a beach in Lima, Peru to create a massive "human banner" image to promote awareness about territorial rights for indigenous peoples in the global climate conversation. Beneath the heat of the sun and to the sound of beating drums, indigenous peoples and a […]

A delegation from the environmental collective Yasunidos finally arrived to Lima, Peru today after a week of harassment and intimidation by Ecuadorian police and military that sought to prevent them from crossing the border to attend the COP20 climate conference, and thrust the Ecuadorian government's continued domestic crackdown on civil society critic […]

Together with our indigenous allies from the Amazon and NGO allies from the north and south, Amazon Watch is in Lima to highlight and expose major threats from a wave of egregious extractive and infrastructure projects planned for the Amazon.

"Brazil has been on a path of trying to bring down deforestation a lot," said Maira Irigaray, Brazil program coordinator for Amazon Watch. "But when it comes to the Amazon, those numbers are still huge." Amazon Watch and other groups say Brazil's decision to roll back laws limiting the clear cutting of forests been behind the rise in […]

Hundreds of indigenous people and supporters will form a gigantic "human banner" art work on the beach, creating an image symbolizing the important role of indigenous protection of the rainforest and natural resources.

A new study said indigenous lands were "protected natural areas" accounting for 55% of the carbon stored in the Amazon basin. It said this land was at risk because governments had failed to recognize or enforce indigenous land rights.